


Ashes to Dust

by LadyoftheShield



Series: Crime Alley's Finest [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Streets of Gotham (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Bad Future, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Do you want future Jason not to trust you?, Gen, Jason Todd Did Not Sign Up For This Shit, Jason Todd is Robin, Specifically Tim Drake, Time Travel, Titans of Tomorrow, tfw when you meet your dad from the past and he's baby, this is how you get future Jason not to trust you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24286174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheShield/pseuds/LadyoftheShield
Summary: Colin never remembered the first time they met, because it happened in a future that didn't.Batfam Week 2020 Day 7
Relationships: Jason Todd & Colin Wilkes
Series: Crime Alley's Finest [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753129
Kudos: 16
Collections: Batcest-B-Gone, Tales from the Cave





	Ashes to Dust

He spilled out of Wreckage’s grasp, gasping in the warm evening air. Robin staggered up, still dizzy from tumbling around in Wreckage’s innards. Jesus. He wiped his face, trying to rid himself of the burning, greasy sensation on his face, his neck. Great, rubbing made it worse.

A low gurgle sounded from beside him. “You ok there, big guy?” he asked, turning. In the dim light, restrained in the alley as they were, he could barely make out Wreckage’s lumpy form.

Another faint sound. Something was wrong. Jason limped over, spitting as curse as his injured knee buckled. He went down, and caught himself on his palms just before he mashed his face into the alley floor. As his curses blistered the air, something pressed against his good knee. 

“S’fine. You?” Wreckage’s quiet voice almost drowned in the silence of the alley. 

Robin looked up. Wreckage hadn’t reformed. He lay in the alley, a shapeless mass of flesh and tissue- half of which was discolored with a crusty red so dark it shone black in the grimy light. Traces of the molten steel that had forced Wreckage to wrap around him in the first place clung to crevices in the mass, dull and just beginning to set.

He pulled himself forward, dragging his knee along the ground. Clear liquid with streaks of red trickled along the pavement, draining from Wreckage’s body toward the sewer. 

“Are you supposed to be doing that?” he demanded. “Is that normal?”

Wreckage shook as a low thrumming reverberated around him. Wreckage, he realized, was laughing. His mass twisted. The dark red crust broke like a popcorn shell. Shards of still-warm metal pinged around the enclosed alley like bullet shells as Wreckage let out another high pitched scream. Jason pressed his hands onto the closest thing Wreckage had to a torso. “Tell me what to do!”

“’s ok, Jason,” Wreckage said, “you can’t fix this.”

You can’t leave, he wanted to say. You can’t leave, you’re the adult. I need someone who knows what the fuck is going on, I need someone who can fight whoever the fuck is pretending to be Batman. 

“Hey. Hey.” Something approaching a hand lifted from Wreckage’s mass and pressed against Jason’s cheek. His vision blurred. 

The constant pulsing and twitching that he had just grown accustomed to from Wreckage had nearly stopped. Shoving down what remained of his revulsion, Jason leaned forward and clasped his hand onto a place that seemed like it would be Wreckage's left shoulder. Wreckage stiffened. A low keening echoed through the alley, and Jason almost pulled back before he recognized it: a sob.

Wreckage didn’t have the strength to wrap around him. Jason saw him try anyway, his flesh responding without the speed and dexterity it had only hours ago as it wrapped around his hand and squeezed gently.

“Love you,” he gurgled.

Then Jason fell forward again as Wreckage dissolved into chunks of sludge. Jason caught himself again, the impact into the puddle that had been Wreckage splashing on his face. He scrambled back with a cry of disgust, away from the widening pool of liquid. 

“Are you done playing hero yet?” a cool voice asked, and Jason’s attention snapped to the end of the alley. The other Batman stood there, calm and placid as a lake on a windless day.

“This is your fucking fault!” Jason snarled, drawing a batarang.

“It’s time for you to go home, Jason,” Batman said, taking a step forward. “Go home and forget all of this.”

“Easy for you to say you emotionless freak,” he snapped. God, he was desperate to punch his face in. But he was still a Batman, and there was no way Jason could beat him alone. He needed to regroup. He needed to find this Maps that Wreckage had mentioned.

“Do not mistake my composure for apathy,” Batman said, taking another step. “Are you going to come quietly, or do I need to scramble your nervous system again?”


End file.
